TURIN — Spanish executive Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos will be Alfa Romeo’s new design chief, sources said, as the troubled brand heads for a turnaround under its new owner, Stellantis.
Mesonero will join Alfa’s design team based in Turin in July, people familiar with the matter told Automotive News Europe.
Mesonero, 53, will replace Daniele Calonaci, who will continue to lead Jeep design for Stellantis in Europe.
Stellantis was formed in January by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group.
Mesonero quit as design boss at Renault’s Dacia budget brand earlier this month after just six months in the post. He had been recruited to Renault by CEO Luca de Meo. He had worked under de Meo at Seat, Volkswagen Group’s Spanish brand.
Mesonero’s appointment to Alfa was first reported by Auto & Design magazine.
A Stellantis spokesman declined to comment on the appointment to ANE.
Mesonero strengthens the top management team that new Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato is putting together to try to reverse the declining fortunes of the sporty premium brand.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has tasked Imparato, who had a successful run as Peugeot CEO, with reviving Alfa Romeo sales and developing new joint models for the Alfa, DS and Lancia brands.
Mesonero joins Alfa with two new models already approved for production: the Tonale compact crossover, whose launch has been delayed to early 2022 by Imparato, and a small crossover due a year later to be called the Brennero.
This means the first Alfas designed by Mesonero aren’t likely to appear until mid-2023.
Alfa’s product lineup has shrunk to just two models, the Stelvio midsize crossover and Giulia midsize sedan, and its vehicle sales have slumped in its two biggest markets, Europe and the U.S.
The brand has not released annual global sales figures, but the FIM-CISL Italian union says production of the Stelvio, Giulia and the Giulietta sedan, which was discontinued in late 2020, fell 9 percent to 53,422 units last year.
In Europe, Alfa’s vehicle sales last year declined by a third to 35,503 units, of which 17,332 were Stelvios and 10,747 were Giulias, according to JATO Dynamics. In the U.S., Alfa’s sales increased 1.6 percent to 18,586 units last year, according to data from the Automotive News Data Center.
Mesonero started his career in 1994 when he joined Seat’s design department, where his brother, Carlos, had been working since 1985. He moved to Renault in 2001 to lead the design of the Laguna coupe. From 2009 to 2011 he directed design at Renault Samsung Motors in South Korea. He returned to Seat as design director in 2011.
During his second stint at Seat, the introduction of a series of successful crossovers, the Ateca, Arona and Tarraco, helped to make Seat profitable after years of losses.
Mesonero designed the fifth-generation Ibiza small car and the latest two generations of the Leon family of compact models, and also shaped models such as the Formentor and Tavascan as stand-alone models for Seat’s performance brand Cupra.
For his work at Seat and Cupra, Mesonero received the Automotive News Europe Eurostar Award for Design of Multiple Models in 2018.